Washington B.C.
Washington B.C. is the second episode of Ben 10. Plot There is a fire in a building in the Washington, D.C. area; people are out on the streets, watching it. Within it, a woman and her son are trapped, and to make their situation worse, the ceiling is about to collapse onto them. They brace for the impact, but Heatblast arrives and catches the falling debris, tossing it aside. He then absorbs all the fire in the room and tries to lead them to safety. The three attempt to use the nearby staircase to escape, but another piece of the building smashes their route to oblivion. spots another alternate exit, Heatblast quickly cuts through a wall at the end of the hallway, then transports them to the street below by encasing them, as well as himself, in a tornado of fire. Once outside, Heatblast begins to act modest about the event to the impressed onlookers, but his attention is quickly drawn off by Sumo Slammers trading cards in the little boy's hand, which the kid got as a prize from Sumo Smacks Cereal. Gwen and Max drive up in the Rust Bucket and inform him that the fire was started as a diversion so some thieves could rob the jewelry store. As they pursue the thieves, Heatblast accidentally burns the leather seat next to his Grandpa by sitting in it. Gwen sprays him with an extinguisher, achideing him for his non-strategic choice of superhero in this instance. However, Heatblast claims she is jealous, which responds by spraying him again. The short chase ends when Heatblast leans out the window and blows up the rear of their car, sending it careening into a brick wall. He walks up to the driver's side and pulls the door off, convincing them to get out by crushing the door with his bare hands and threatening to give them a sunburn. But as he starts to berate the criminals, the Omnitrix's circuitry turns red and Heatblast ends up reverting back into Ben before he finishes. They notice Ben and try to escape, but the police show up before they can go anywhere. Ben tries to take credit for the capture, but the cops tell him that this isn't something that kids should be playing around about. In a different part of the city, a man named Roger is knocking incessantly on an apartment door but gets no response, so he lets himself in. Inside the room, cages of different animals are seen everywhere and animal noises can be heard in the background. The place also smells like a zoo, and the landlord, Dr. Aloynius Animo, eventually shows up to question his intrusion. Roger tells him that his rent is past due, but Dr. Animo is indifferent and says that the money goes to his research. Rogers' insistance, however, prompts Animo to reveal what he was working on; he picks up his Transmodulator helmet and takes out a frog from its cage, using it to alter genetic information and make the frog grow many times its size as well as gain horns and more eyes that are colored red. The frog grabs Roger with its tongue and spits him into the wall, knocking him unconscious. Dr. Animo remarks that he needs more components to complete his work. A commercial comes up in the TV about the new M-Mart and it catches his attention as a source for his missing components. While shopping at the M-Mart, Ben notices boxes of Sumo Smack cereal in the cearal aisle and, desperate for a gold Sumo Slammers card, transforms into Grey Matter. In this alien form, Grey Matter raides all the boxes and makes a mess of the entire cereal aisle trying to find the card. Gwen catches him, but she is eventually blamed for incident by an employee who comes over, and the Tennysons are forced to buy a large supply of cereal for the store. Once they are done, Max leads Gwen to the pet department while Ben notices a display of the whole collection of Sumo Slammers cards. Suddenly, Dr. Animo bursts in through the wall of televisions entertainment section, riding on his mutant frog. Ben catches him looting the place, but the doctor tells him not to be a hero and with the Omnitrix still in Recharge Mode, he is forced to take the advice. Dr. Animo then goes off to another section of the store, despite being stopped momentarily by some guards. While Gwen plays with a hamster in the pet section, Dr. Animo turns the hamster and a nearby bird into giant mutants. Ben arrives just as he finishes the process, and Dr. Animo goes off on a rant in what he deserves, and in what he plans to make Washington D.C. "pre-historical." The mutant hamster then pursues the Tennysons. It ends up going past Ben and corners Gwen and Max, but Ben improvises with a football and a motor scooter and traps it under some shelves. This angers Animo, who rants about turning Washington D.C. into Washington "B.C." and leaves on the giant bird with the electronics, with the giant frog then follows. The store owner offers a reward for their work, which Ben intends to use to get his gold Sumo Slammers card, but his Grandpa drags him off to continue their pursuit with Animo. In the Rust Bucket, Max comments about how the chase reminds him of the good old days. This confuses Gwen, who believes him to have been a regular plumber. Ben pouts the entire time and complains about not collecting his reward. As always, Grandpa has advice and answers that being a hero is what is most rewarding, though Ben wasn't convinced. Gwen pops in to report what she's found out about Animo. It turns out that he was a veterinary scientist that was doing twisted genetic experiments. He is angry because his work did not win him an award when he believes it should have. Animo's comments about pre-history lead Ben to a conclusion about where he's probably headed. They head to the natural history museum, where Animo is continuing his work on his Transmodulator. When he notices them, he goes into another scientific explanation. This one is about the true purpose of his Transmodulator, which is to bring dormant organisms back to life. His speech is lost on his audience, especially on Ben. Realizing this, he makes a visual aid out of a nearby mammoth, reanimating the formerly dead animal, and leaves the mammoth to deal with them while he escapes, but Ben stays and turns into Four Arms. In this alien form, Four Arms deals with the mammoth by wrestling it to the ground while Gwen and Max go after Animo, deterred by the mutant bird. Using a nearby spear, Gwen knocks it out, and comments that Four Arms isn't the only one with skills. They catch up to Animo, only to the point where he reanimates a T-Rex. Although the T-Rex is brought back to life, several large pieces of its skin and flesh are missing. Meanwhile, Four Arms is still fighting the mammoth and eventually defeats it after being tossed around a few times. As Animo escapes with the mutant T-Rex, the mutant bird swoops in and kidnaps Gwen. Four Arms arrives in time to chase it, but is unable to get Gwen back. He tries to take it down, but is shaken off and falls to the street below. Four Arms reverts back into Ben just after crashing into the street. As Ben and Grandpa look for Gwen, Animo is on his way to retrieve what he thinks he truly deserves. He goes through a Sumo Slammers card stand on the way, catching a gold card in the mutant T-Rex's toe. At the same time, the mutant bird perches itself on the Washington Monument, with Gwen still in its clutches. She remembers that she has her emergency cell phone and uses it to call Ben and Grandpa. Just before getting the call, Grandpa hands Ben a slip of paper that Animo had dropped during his escape from the museum. It addresses the information about the person that received the award in Animo's place - a man named Dr. Kelly. Ben realizes that this is who Animo is after. Gwen's call then leads and pinpoints them to her location. As she is about to fall, Ben turns into Stinkfly. In this alien form, Stinkfly is able to save Gwen before she hits the ground. This leaves him hindered, however, since the mutant bird decides to attack him. He attempts to battle the bird with Gwen in tow while Grandpa Max heads to the top of the monument. Seeing Grandpa at one of the observation windows, Stinkfly takes the opportunity to drop Gwen off there. Without the extra weight, he is able to take the mutant bird down easier. Grandpa then tells him to follow Animo. Meanwhile, at Kelly Industries, Kelly is leading a group of people on a tour. Animo arrives on the mutant T-Rex to steal the award, and promptly does so. After giving a short and pointless speech, he has the mutant T-Rex attack Kelly. Stinkfly arrives just in time to save him. The mutant T-Rex uses its tail to smack Stinkfly down to the floor, where he notices the gold Sumo Slammers card. As he's about to take the card he sees that the mutant T-Rex is about to eat Kelly. Like any superhero would, he remembers what Grandpa had told him, and realizes that some things are more important than a card. He then flies off to save Kelly, as the card gets buried in debris. After saving Kelly, Animo tries to use his Transmodulator to blast Stinkfly, but he is too agile to be hit. Stinkfly then fires some slime at the mutant T-Rex, causing Animo to drop the award and breaking it. Distracted by the destruction of his award, Animo loses the Transmodulator to Stinkfly. Stinkfly tosses it to the floor, and it emits a pulse changing every creature Animo had used it on back to normal. Later on, as the police drag Animo away, he continues to rant about how the award should be his. The words resonate with Ben's earlier comments, and Ben realizes just how he sounded. He does get Animo's Transmodulator as a reminder, though. On reflection, Ben sees that saving the city really is its own reward. Gwen thanks Ben for rescuing her, and he claims that heroes are supposed to rescue dweebs. This causes the two to call each other names as the episode ends. Noteworthy Events Major Events Omnitrix Alien Debuts *Grey Matter *Four Arms *Stinklfy Character Debuts *Roger *Dr. Animo *Dr. Kelly *Sumo Slammer Collecting Boy Characters *Ben Tennyson *Gwen Tennyson *Max Tennyson *Dr. Kelly (first appearance) *Roger (first appearance) *Sumo Slammer Collecting Boy (first appearance) Villains *Dr. Animo (first appearance) *Mutant Frog (first appearance) *Mutant Hamster (first appearance) *Mutant Cockatiel (first appearance) *Mutant Mammoth (first appearance) *Mutant Tyrannosaurus (first appearance) *The Two Robbers Aliens Used *Heatblast *Grey Matter (first appearance) *Four Arms (first appearance) *Stinkfly (first appearance) Quotes Naming and Translations Cast Allusions *The title is based on the trio's second stop, Washington D.C.. *The Sotopithicus model seen in the natural history museum and Soto Bridge seen on a billboard at the end of the episode are named after supervising producer Alex Soto. *Kelly Industries is named after Man of Action member Joe Kelly. Trivia *Another version of this episode exists, but it's the unaired pilot of the show. *According to pop-up trivia from the enhanced version of the episode, Dr. Animo was inspired to complete his work and make his own monsters after seeing news footage of Ben saving the campsite in And Then There Were 10. *Tyrannosaurus Rex sound effects from the "Jurassic Park" franchise can be heard in this episode. Category:Episodes Category:Ben 10 Episodes Category:Ben 10 Season One Episodes Category:Episodes Written by Tom Pugsley Category:Episodes Written by Greg Klein